Posts
Recently we had a couple of guildies that got their accounts hacked, items lost, characters deleted and transferred, badges spent and, weirdly enough, moved to remote locations. One guildie, in particular, was the guild leader, which also compromised the guild bank. Fortunately, while a lot of items were removed and supposedly sold, they were also things no one really used or needed, so it was nothing we couldn’t live without for the time being.
One of the more interesting quotes I heard from someone, someone who wasn’t one of the hacked, was “NOW I’m going to get an authenticator”. Why is it that people are so bothered by that tiny little electronic device that they can’t be bothered to get one and apply it BEFORE they need it? It’s like saying, “You’re pregnant? Let’s start using a condom.”
We had another guildie who DID get an authenticator and, even having waited impatiently for it to arrive, didn’t apply it for approximately 3 weeks, because the directions were complicated. I said, really? I think it took me all of 5 minutes to go to the various websites and apply this or that and bam, done. I think what finally worked, talking him into finally doing it, was reminding him that he got a pet for doing it. Same person, let me point out, who went and bought Lil XT the same day it was released. Hey, if it takes a pet for you to help secure your account, so be it.
But why? Why are people like this? People will spend money to move a character from one realm to another before they’ll spend a fraction of that on an authenticator. I’m not saying that having one is going to absolutely totally and completely secure your account from any hacking attempts whatsoever. But it is going to prevent a lot. Condoms aren’t 100% effective but the medical field is never going to say don’t bother using one.
You can tell your friends and family you’re as smart as you want. You can say you don’t go to “phishy” websites and you don’t give out your account information and you are super careful about what you do and you never DL stuff and whatever. The other guildie hacked was the IT manager for his company, who cautions and berates others for not being more careful with their online activities.
It’s true, what they say. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Would $6 have been worth the time, effort, mental peace of mind plus a really cute in game pet that these guys lost? One guildie lost his main, favorite toon – an 80th level hunter – who was transferred off his account and to another server. He also lost all the gear on his raiding healer, and we had a raid that night that we obviously had to cancel. Plus he sat on hold for the Billing department for over an hour. And he was livid. If you ask him now, yes, $6 would have been a very low price to pay to avoid all that. But if you’d have asked him last week, $6 wasn’t worth it when he was saving up for some other, temporary, in game service.
This is a cautionary tale. Will everyone be hacked? No. Does everyone care about their account? I hope so. Do you have to spend real money for account security? No, actually, you really don’t. A lot of people go for years being extremely smart, lucky, or both, and never have an issue. But sometimes luck works against you and everything falls apart in a matter of hours. Whether you choose to spend the money for another layer of protection is up to you, of course, but it really comes down to how much is the cost upfront worth the cost after the fact. Consider not only the initial outlay but also the manpower hours as well as mental tranquility.
Plus, cool in game pet!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
The Raid Healer
I had an interesting conversation with one of my roommates. He plays a priest, holy. We got talking about yet another friend who plays a holy paladin. I had mentioned how much my friend is asked to raid heal lately and, frankly, hates it. I was commiserating because I, too, dislike immensely having to raid heal as a discipline priest.
He says, you guys are better equipped for raid healing than we are.
I made that face at him. You know the, O_O one.
Upon my reaction he says, "I don't really know anything about discipline priests."
So then I did the /)>.<(\ face. (My version of a facepalm.)
Beyond the specs not knowing what the other can do (hey, I'm a victim of it too. Remember the Great Respec Of 2010), I kind of thought everyone knew that the discipline priest was the red-headed stepchild of healing.
I said to him, what's your HPS? He says, somewhat sheepishly I might add, oh, only about 3sh, maybe 4k. I said, very seriously, mine is about 2k unless it's a bad fight and things go very wrong (such as last week in ICC where I hit very nearly 4k because of the insanity but it's nice to know it's possible).
That's where he gave me the O_O face. He said... but you've got... um... I said, shield. And it's a wonderful shield. I can spec it down to 0 cool-down and it will heal and it will do damage in the right circumstance and it's pretty. And I have 1 AOE heal. You, sir, have, what, 3?
I know what you guys are thinking. But holy priests are doing more burst damage. We're doing flash heal all the time. We're using shield. We're using prayer of mending. And I agree, yes you are. And yes, I have prayer of healing. And lightwell? I know it isn't popular. But drop that down near the tanks (hey, I've seen you do it) and they can take a second to hit the bowl. Circle of Healing. I, as disc, get penance. Yours - AOE. Mine - targeted, channeled.
I'm not complaining. I love being a discipline priest. I just am not well equipped for raid healing. I do it. Shield, shield, shield. But if people are relying on me to completely heal the raid, they're going to start dying. Priority is tank, second is healers, third is DPS. DPS is what gets us through the raid, I know. Uber important. But the fact you're not on my priority only means that by the time I can get around to you, the tank is back to dying. And I'm very much more equipped to heal that one, and keep us all alive, than you.
Let me use one fight as an example. Stinky in Icecrown. Major points: decimate, AOE damage, stacking debuff that makes healing the tanks harder. When the decimate starts to come, I watch real close the countdown and try to time my prayer of healing to go off just after we're hit. And it heals for a VERY little amount in the grand scheme of things. Then I shield shield shield. And, again, tanks --> healers --> DPS. And I hope for 2 things. Someone else didn't shield a second too soon so it doesn't fall off prematurely and that the other healers are doing their AOEs, because if they aren't we're going to lose people. And after that, I start hitting penance and flash heals.
I raid heal because I have to, not because I'm any good at it. I don't hate it like my paladin friend (funny how this story started with her and here I am trying to get back to it) but I don't particularly like it. As you may or may not recall, I did spec into holy, and thus, raid healing and I had a few good experiences with it. If nothing else, it taught me mad respect for the spec. But I'm not good at it. My paladin friend is not good at it. Why is the new trend for us to be raid healers? I know in my guild we're short on healers, which is a valid reason, we all need to pull together (3 priests in ICC. It's a challenge), but that isn't the case of my friend.
Srsly, raid leaders, wry?
He says, you guys are better equipped for raid healing than we are.
I made that face at him. You know the, O_O one.
Upon my reaction he says, "I don't really know anything about discipline priests."
So then I did the /)>.<(\ face. (My version of a facepalm.)
Beyond the specs not knowing what the other can do (hey, I'm a victim of it too. Remember the Great Respec Of 2010), I kind of thought everyone knew that the discipline priest was the red-headed stepchild of healing.
I said to him, what's your HPS? He says, somewhat sheepishly I might add, oh, only about 3sh, maybe 4k. I said, very seriously, mine is about 2k unless it's a bad fight and things go very wrong (such as last week in ICC where I hit very nearly 4k because of the insanity but it's nice to know it's possible).
That's where he gave me the O_O face. He said... but you've got... um... I said, shield. And it's a wonderful shield. I can spec it down to 0 cool-down and it will heal and it will do damage in the right circumstance and it's pretty. And I have 1 AOE heal. You, sir, have, what, 3?
I know what you guys are thinking. But holy priests are doing more burst damage. We're doing flash heal all the time. We're using shield. We're using prayer of mending. And I agree, yes you are. And yes, I have prayer of healing. And lightwell? I know it isn't popular. But drop that down near the tanks (hey, I've seen you do it) and they can take a second to hit the bowl. Circle of Healing. I, as disc, get penance. Yours - AOE. Mine - targeted, channeled.
I'm not complaining. I love being a discipline priest. I just am not well equipped for raid healing. I do it. Shield, shield, shield. But if people are relying on me to completely heal the raid, they're going to start dying. Priority is tank, second is healers, third is DPS. DPS is what gets us through the raid, I know. Uber important. But the fact you're not on my priority only means that by the time I can get around to you, the tank is back to dying. And I'm very much more equipped to heal that one, and keep us all alive, than you.
Let me use one fight as an example. Stinky in Icecrown. Major points: decimate, AOE damage, stacking debuff that makes healing the tanks harder. When the decimate starts to come, I watch real close the countdown and try to time my prayer of healing to go off just after we're hit. And it heals for a VERY little amount in the grand scheme of things. Then I shield shield shield. And, again, tanks --> healers --> DPS. And I hope for 2 things. Someone else didn't shield a second too soon so it doesn't fall off prematurely and that the other healers are doing their AOEs, because if they aren't we're going to lose people. And after that, I start hitting penance and flash heals.
I raid heal because I have to, not because I'm any good at it. I don't hate it like my paladin friend (funny how this story started with her and here I am trying to get back to it) but I don't particularly like it. As you may or may not recall, I did spec into holy, and thus, raid healing and I had a few good experiences with it. If nothing else, it taught me mad respect for the spec. But I'm not good at it. My paladin friend is not good at it. Why is the new trend for us to be raid healers? I know in my guild we're short on healers, which is a valid reason, we all need to pull together (3 priests in ICC. It's a challenge), but that isn't the case of my friend.
Srsly, raid leaders, wry?
Monday, April 19, 2010
And The Winner Is…!
Discipline FTW!
I finished out the week with holy as my main spec and shadow as my off spec. And I felt I didn’t necessarily give it enough time as holy, and I felt I still could and needed to learn some things about the spec, so I opted to keep it, at least for a little while longer. I didn’t hate the spec, and I even had that good VOA 10 run, but it still wasn’t comfortable to me.
I did, however, turn my off-spec to discipline. My idea was, give holy a little more time, use disc in raids when I might need it, and also try to use disc as a viable questing spec. I wasn’t sure how but a guild member told me he used it for questing and gave me some pointers, so I was going to give that a shot for the week.
We head to our raid that night and the raid leader tells me, ok, spec back to disc and heal. The FIRST thing I do, of course, is shield. And immediately I squeal on vent "OH MY GOD, I MISSED YOU!" No, I really did. They laughed. And mocked me. They’re mean.
We proceed through the rest of the night. I asked my raid leader a few times, do you want me to switch to holy. His answer was always either "Do what you want" or "Stay disc". There was one fight where he did say do holy but then I switched right back to disc after. Then, as we get to Saurfang, we couldn’t get past him, just couldn’t no matter how we tried. So the guild gets talking, we need more DPS. After our next wipe, the raid leader hands me 50 gold and tells me to go respect to shadow.
Now I did learn some things. And I learned how to better utilize some spells. So it was definitely a learning experience that I don’t regret taking.
And now, because of all my fancy footwork, my "main" spec supposedly is shadow now and my off-spec is disc. But I think we all know the truth.
Discipline FTW!
I finished out the week with holy as my main spec and shadow as my off spec. And I felt I didn’t necessarily give it enough time as holy, and I felt I still could and needed to learn some things about the spec, so I opted to keep it, at least for a little while longer. I didn’t hate the spec, and I even had that good VOA 10 run, but it still wasn’t comfortable to me.
I did, however, turn my off-spec to discipline. My idea was, give holy a little more time, use disc in raids when I might need it, and also try to use disc as a viable questing spec. I wasn’t sure how but a guild member told me he used it for questing and gave me some pointers, so I was going to give that a shot for the week.
We head to our raid that night and the raid leader tells me, ok, spec back to disc and heal. The FIRST thing I do, of course, is shield. And immediately I squeal on vent "OH MY GOD, I MISSED YOU!" No, I really did. They laughed. And mocked me. They’re mean.
We proceed through the rest of the night. I asked my raid leader a few times, do you want me to switch to holy. His answer was always either "Do what you want" or "Stay disc". There was one fight where he did say do holy but then I switched right back to disc after. Then, as we get to Saurfang, we couldn’t get past him, just couldn’t no matter how we tried. So the guild gets talking, we need more DPS. After our next wipe, the raid leader hands me 50 gold and tells me to go respect to shadow.
Now I did learn some things. And I learned how to better utilize some spells. So it was definitely a learning experience that I don’t regret taking.
And now, because of all my fancy footwork, my "main" spec supposedly is shadow now and my off-spec is disc. But I think we all know the truth.
Discipline FTW!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Holy and Discipline Enter the Ring - Who Will Win?
I have never wanted to be a Holy priest in World of Warcraft. By the time I got to about 30th level, when I was still using talents in both trees (Holy and Disc that is), I realized I was really healing the way more of the mitigation and shielding. By the time I hit 40ish, I fully specialized into Disc and never looked back. I really preferred my shield over spamming group heals. I liked a more efficient healing.
My guild also knows I like the Disc spec, regardless the crap I catch for it. There's even an officer in my guild ho thinks Disc priests suck and can't heal. The only reason he hasn't pursued either forcing me to change to holy or getting rid of me entirely is because I am also an officer.
So, all that said... why did I respec Sunday to holy?
I got talking with our raid leader after a particularly successful and frustrating night (yes to both) and he was ruminating on how he'd wished at times I were a holy priest but then he'd lose a tank healer...
Well, I got thinking about it. And I thought, as much as I disliked the idea of going holy spec, I should perhaps talk to him to see how serious he was and how sincere.
His main concern was that he wanted me to learn all aspects of the class and so far I knew 2 of the 3 (disc and shadow) and I couldn't honestly say I knew holy at all. I couldn't argue with it.
We agreed to give it a week and the caveat was I couldn't keep disc as an off-spec because, as he said, he needed to know I was only healing in holy spec AND he said, "I know you, you're going to get frustrated and switch specs to heal because that's what I would do."
So. Yeah. Goodbye to you my trusted friend, we've known each other since I was 9th or 10th...
It's been... frustrating, as predicted. The first day I didn't like it -at all-. I didn't heal anything particularly challenging though but I did completely act like I was still in disc spec, throwing shields around and trying to spot heal, and that just wasn't working, of course.
Second day was a lot like the same, I hit a couple of instances and tried to do more of the AOE healing but I didn't like the mana drain. AND I got told that's something I'd have to deal with. Seriously? I just have to suck up that I'm going to have massive mana issues with this spec and things are just going to get worse with the expansion AND this is ok with everyone? Srsly?
By the third day I still didn't like it but I drug myself to an instance to heal. Fortunately it wasn't a very hard one, as far as they go, and I was getting more into the habit of just spamming AOE healing but it seems to me that's not very efficient. By the end I had more of a hang for it but it still just doesn't feel "right" to me.
So, moving on to the fourth day, I'm requesting of my group hitting a raid, even if it isn't a big one, because 5-mans really aren't going to be a challenge enough to test this out. Mind you, I don't really WANT to test it out, because I don't think it's in my internal make-up to be a good AOE spam healer. Or any sort of AOE spam healer. I very much prefer seeing who needs the healing where. The problem with that philosophy, of course, is when "something" happens and suddenly 4 people need big heals.
There is a time and place for each type of healer. One is not better than the other. That's a matter of skill, not tools.
On the plus side, if I really do continue to dislike it by Friday, I'm assured my raid leader will accept that and I'll merrily respec back to disc. I may occasionally be called on to respec holy for circumstance but I won't have to live with it. Another (unhappy) possibility is having two healing specs, dropping the shadow. I think that'd be really hard to live with because I use shadow for everything else I do - questing, PVPing, instances where I'm not healing. I probably can do all that with a healing spec, well, except the whole instance thing of course, but it's so much harder that I avoid it. There was the minor threat of making me respec weekly between the two healing specs, or even more than once or twice, depending on what we'd need but I am so against that that if I HAD to, I might take both. But that'd kill my life outside of raiding on that toon so I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Oh well, just day 4 now. We'll see how the rest of this week plays out.
Is it bad that I really hope I don't end up liking holy? Or just human?
My guild also knows I like the Disc spec, regardless the crap I catch for it. There's even an officer in my guild ho thinks Disc priests suck and can't heal. The only reason he hasn't pursued either forcing me to change to holy or getting rid of me entirely is because I am also an officer.
So, all that said... why did I respec Sunday to holy?
I got talking with our raid leader after a particularly successful and frustrating night (yes to both) and he was ruminating on how he'd wished at times I were a holy priest but then he'd lose a tank healer...
Well, I got thinking about it. And I thought, as much as I disliked the idea of going holy spec, I should perhaps talk to him to see how serious he was and how sincere.
His main concern was that he wanted me to learn all aspects of the class and so far I knew 2 of the 3 (disc and shadow) and I couldn't honestly say I knew holy at all. I couldn't argue with it.
We agreed to give it a week and the caveat was I couldn't keep disc as an off-spec because, as he said, he needed to know I was only healing in holy spec AND he said, "I know you, you're going to get frustrated and switch specs to heal because that's what I would do."
So. Yeah. Goodbye to you my trusted friend, we've known each other since I was 9th or 10th...
It's been... frustrating, as predicted. The first day I didn't like it -at all-. I didn't heal anything particularly challenging though but I did completely act like I was still in disc spec, throwing shields around and trying to spot heal, and that just wasn't working, of course.
Second day was a lot like the same, I hit a couple of instances and tried to do more of the AOE healing but I didn't like the mana drain. AND I got told that's something I'd have to deal with. Seriously? I just have to suck up that I'm going to have massive mana issues with this spec and things are just going to get worse with the expansion AND this is ok with everyone? Srsly?
By the third day I still didn't like it but I drug myself to an instance to heal. Fortunately it wasn't a very hard one, as far as they go, and I was getting more into the habit of just spamming AOE healing but it seems to me that's not very efficient. By the end I had more of a hang for it but it still just doesn't feel "right" to me.
So, moving on to the fourth day, I'm requesting of my group hitting a raid, even if it isn't a big one, because 5-mans really aren't going to be a challenge enough to test this out. Mind you, I don't really WANT to test it out, because I don't think it's in my internal make-up to be a good AOE spam healer. Or any sort of AOE spam healer. I very much prefer seeing who needs the healing where. The problem with that philosophy, of course, is when "something" happens and suddenly 4 people need big heals.
There is a time and place for each type of healer. One is not better than the other. That's a matter of skill, not tools.
On the plus side, if I really do continue to dislike it by Friday, I'm assured my raid leader will accept that and I'll merrily respec back to disc. I may occasionally be called on to respec holy for circumstance but I won't have to live with it. Another (unhappy) possibility is having two healing specs, dropping the shadow. I think that'd be really hard to live with because I use shadow for everything else I do - questing, PVPing, instances where I'm not healing. I probably can do all that with a healing spec, well, except the whole instance thing of course, but it's so much harder that I avoid it. There was the minor threat of making me respec weekly between the two healing specs, or even more than once or twice, depending on what we'd need but I am so against that that if I HAD to, I might take both. But that'd kill my life outside of raiding on that toon so I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Oh well, just day 4 now. We'll see how the rest of this week plays out.
Is it bad that I really hope I don't end up liking holy? Or just human?
Monday, March 29, 2010
Beware. I live.
At least it hasn't been a year, right?
So a lot has happened since I last wrote. My hunter has been dropped to "Alt" status. I still bring her out regularily but she's my banker/auctioneer now without having the stress of going out to hunt. I might drag her around since she's also my herbalist but that's on rare occasions. Oh, and she got to 65 before I gave her up.
I just realized at some point that it was unsatisfying playing her. I'm not entirely sure why. In a way, it was too easy. Send in pet, pewpew. Wash, rinse, repeat. I know there are challenges to every class and I'm not knocking it. It just wasn't for me after a while.
Also about this time, the guild I was with sort of had a breaking up moment, but not really. See, the guild leaders decided our guild wasn't progressing enough for their tastes - they had some 80th level characters and were having a hard time getting to the end content, even with PUGging. So they were trying to "merge" with another guild, which sort of resulted in them joining the other guild, leaving the guild I was with open, and leaving an invitation for people to talk to the new guild to join. I don't blame them in the least for it but it still sent a ripple effect through the people left behind.
So as I was feeling a little of the left-behindedness and wasn't feeling the need to play my hunter, so I rolled up a priest. I'm not entirely sure at the time why I did it but its worked out rather well. I mean, I got her to 80 in record time for me (remember me with the 1001 alts?) and I'm still playing her regularily, in instances and raids. Go me.
She's fun. Priesting FTW.
She started as an undead because I liked the racials. It wasn't so much the cannibalism (which is always entertaining) since I could heal but I liked the underwater breathing (I'm odd, I can't help it) and being able to use Will of the Forsaken. However, when I realized that Will of the Forsaken was going on a cooldown with other movement-clearing abilities, it became less of a novelity for me. So I switched her to Blood Elf. Hey, I'm shallow, I know, but I also fell in love with Arcane Torrent. +6% mana instantly every 2 minutes? Yes, please!
Others may scoff at this little gem but its saved my life - and countless others - time and again. And while it isn't as useful as it may once have been, what with gear upgrades and such, I still have occasion to pop that little sucker off (stopping Moorabi's transformation, anyone?) so it's still part of my style. I've considered changing her to troll but I'm not as serious about their racials so it's just a consideration at this point.
I'm also working on raising a paladin up, tanking style. I figured if I wanted to heal I'd just bring out my priest so I'll leave my paladin with tank/ret. Sides, I'm not sure I want to try to remember two separate healing styles. It's far easier to say "Ok, when I'm healing, this is my rotation and this is where the buttons are located" versus "When I'm a priest, this is my rotation but when I'm a paladin, this is my rotation..." Cha'know?
I'm not seriously considering at this time raising anything else. Oh, don't get me wrong, when the expansion hits, I fully plan to try out a troll druid. But, hopefully, I'll have finished my paladin and ready to move on. Sides, the number of times I've tried and abandoned a druid doesn't give me hope that I'll stick to it. But I want to give it a go all the same.
So. Hey. Hi. Remember me? I sure remember you!
So a lot has happened since I last wrote. My hunter has been dropped to "Alt" status. I still bring her out regularily but she's my banker/auctioneer now without having the stress of going out to hunt. I might drag her around since she's also my herbalist but that's on rare occasions. Oh, and she got to 65 before I gave her up.
I just realized at some point that it was unsatisfying playing her. I'm not entirely sure why. In a way, it was too easy. Send in pet, pewpew. Wash, rinse, repeat. I know there are challenges to every class and I'm not knocking it. It just wasn't for me after a while.
Also about this time, the guild I was with sort of had a breaking up moment, but not really. See, the guild leaders decided our guild wasn't progressing enough for their tastes - they had some 80th level characters and were having a hard time getting to the end content, even with PUGging. So they were trying to "merge" with another guild, which sort of resulted in them joining the other guild, leaving the guild I was with open, and leaving an invitation for people to talk to the new guild to join. I don't blame them in the least for it but it still sent a ripple effect through the people left behind.
So as I was feeling a little of the left-behindedness and wasn't feeling the need to play my hunter, so I rolled up a priest. I'm not entirely sure at the time why I did it but its worked out rather well. I mean, I got her to 80 in record time for me (remember me with the 1001 alts?) and I'm still playing her regularily, in instances and raids. Go me.
She's fun. Priesting FTW.
She started as an undead because I liked the racials. It wasn't so much the cannibalism (which is always entertaining) since I could heal but I liked the underwater breathing (I'm odd, I can't help it) and being able to use Will of the Forsaken. However, when I realized that Will of the Forsaken was going on a cooldown with other movement-clearing abilities, it became less of a novelity for me. So I switched her to Blood Elf. Hey, I'm shallow, I know, but I also fell in love with Arcane Torrent. +6% mana instantly every 2 minutes? Yes, please!
Others may scoff at this little gem but its saved my life - and countless others - time and again. And while it isn't as useful as it may once have been, what with gear upgrades and such, I still have occasion to pop that little sucker off (stopping Moorabi's transformation, anyone?) so it's still part of my style. I've considered changing her to troll but I'm not as serious about their racials so it's just a consideration at this point.
I'm also working on raising a paladin up, tanking style. I figured if I wanted to heal I'd just bring out my priest so I'll leave my paladin with tank/ret. Sides, I'm not sure I want to try to remember two separate healing styles. It's far easier to say "Ok, when I'm healing, this is my rotation and this is where the buttons are located" versus "When I'm a priest, this is my rotation but when I'm a paladin, this is my rotation..." Cha'know?
I'm not seriously considering at this time raising anything else. Oh, don't get me wrong, when the expansion hits, I fully plan to try out a troll druid. But, hopefully, I'll have finished my paladin and ready to move on. Sides, the number of times I've tried and abandoned a druid doesn't give me hope that I'll stick to it. But I want to give it a go all the same.
So. Hey. Hi. Remember me? I sure remember you!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Random Moments in Life
A guildie and I were trying to kill off these things and they literally spawned like a second after they died.
Yeah, they weren't too pleased with us. :)
This was just a pretty image I saw one night wander around Sunstrider Isle.
This... is Sid trying to devour me. :( Bad goggie!
I'll leave the caption of this one up to you.
In case we lose it all
With the upcoming changes, I just wanted to remember something.
Rest well, fallen warrior, whoever you are.
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